


Day With Dinosaurs

by coreopsis



Category: Alkaline Trio (Band), Bandom, Bob Bryar fandom
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Humor, M/M, RPS - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-14
Updated: 2011-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-22 15:18:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coreopsis/pseuds/coreopsis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bob drags Matt to the Field Museum the day after Mahoni's Only Feel the Good Things, set sometime after <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/131344">Stuck in Your Head</a>, but you wouldn't have to read that one for these to make sense.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day With Dinosaurs

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Only Feel the Good Things](https://archiveofourown.org/works/236638) by [mahoni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mahoni/pseuds/mahoni). 



> Thanks to Mahoni for beta and for the conversation that led to this story. <3

Matt knows he has been more hung over than this. He just can't quite remember when. Going out drinking with Steinke, Dustin, and Brendan after a show never ends well. At least nobody got arrested this time, so maybe it did, although Brendan did trip over Dustin's feet and go sprawling over a bar stool. Matt has a bruise on his wrist from where he banged it against the bar because he was laughing too hard to see when he tried to set his drink down. Bob has been less than sympathetic this morning because apparently there's this thing called "moderation" that he likes to indulge in, so he's feeling fine and dragging Matt to the Field Museum to look at skeletons and shit.

Matt pulls his Cubs cap a little further down over his aching eyes (the giant sunglasses only do so much) as they get out of the cab and Bob drags him up the approximately 8000 steps to the doors of the museum. Bob stops halfway to gaze at the giant banners and says, "Oh, _whales_. We gotta check that out too."

"Awesome," Matt says as he thinks longingly of the king-sized hotel bed he could be sprawled out asleep in right now if only his boyfriend wasn't a giant geek.

Bob has already paid their admission before Matt can fumble his wallet out of his back pocket, so he holds his hand out to be stamped and tries to dredge up a smile for the perky girl who wishes them a nice visit. When Matt doesn’t get moving fast enough for his liking, Bob actually reaches back and grabs Matt’s wrist and nearly drags him across the massive Stanley Field Hall toward the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Bob steers Matt around a group of children with their grandparents so he can get up close to the dinosaur skeleton. He tilts his head back and gazes up at it with sparkly eyes and says quietly, "Sue. Wow. Look at her, Matt. How fu--freaking amazing."

Matt would still rather be drinking a Bloody Mary in bed (and snuggling with Bob while finishing **In The Garden of Beasts** ) than be in this noisy busy place surrounded by kids and tourists, but he can't help smiling at the genuine wonder on Bob's face. He kind of wants to give Bob a hug until Bob turns his head slightly and says, "T-Rex doesn't want to be fed. He wants to hunt."

Bob has made him watch Jurassic Park about a dozen times, so Matt can now spot the quotes coming from a thousand yards away. Well, usually. He'd have been more prepared for this if he was feeling better. Maybe. God, he'd really, _really_ like a piping hot cup of dark roast as big as this fucking dinosaur right now. He groans a little and Bob visibly fights back a smile and asks, "Too soon?"

Matt just shakes his head and says, "All right, all right, show me your dinosaurs."

Bob does smile then. "There's a Velociraptor upstairs," he says as he leads Matt over to one of the staircases at the back of the hall. "As much as I love **Jurassic Park** , they did get some stuff wrong. Real Velociraptors weren't that big or that smart, and probably had feathers. The evidence for pack hunting is pretty sketchy too. But they were still really fu--freaking cool, right?

"Oh, and we can see Sue's real skull up here," Bob adds as they reach the top of the stairs.

Matt wonders with some amusement if Bob even realizes he's practically holding Matt's hand in public, but Matt's not going to be the one to point it out. Instead he says, "Her skull? What the hell was that thing on top her neck back there?"

"Oh, that's just a model. Her real skull weighs six hundred pounds. The framework couldn't support it, so they have it in a separate case up here. Check this out," Bob says as he nearly gets run over by a stroller being pushed by the toddler that has clearly just escaped from it. Matt smiles at the apologetic mother who grabs the kid before he can do any damage and then slinks off to catch up with Bob who didn't even break stride in his quest to be King of Geeks.

Bob does not have his nose pressed against the glass of the case holding Sue's skull, but Matt can tell with just one look how much he really wants to. Bob turns to see that Matt has caught up and starts spouting off more of the facts and figures he keeps buried in some secretly-nine-year-old part of his brain. Matt just blinks at him from behind his sunglasses and tunes him out while trying to calculate how soon he can get Bob to go back to the hotel for a nap and maybe some fooling around before he has to head over to the venue for tonight's show.

He lets Bob tug him along and tries to listen when Bob tells him all about the different dinosaurs they're looking at. Matt only really gets interested when they see this big feathered thing that's not actually a bird, and Bob tells him all about the various theories about birds and dinosaurs. It's cute as fuck the way Bob tries to be all calm and academic-sounding when his face totally gives away that this shit is totally fascinating to him and makes him as a giddy as a little kid to be able to look at the bones of these creatures up close.

When they reach one of the dark little side rooms just as the film is starting, Bob sits down on the bench against the back wall and looks up at Matt expectantly. Matt takes a seat next to him and slumps back against the wall. The narrator of the film has such a soothing voice that Matt closes his eyes and just lets all the talk of extinction roll right over him.

Matt doesn't realize he's fallen asleep until Bob shakes him and he blinks up blearily to see the credits rolling on the screen. Bob looks at him sympathetically for a long moment and then says, "We don't have to stay if you want to go back to the hotel and get some sleep. It'll all still be here next time I'm in town."

Going back to the hotel sounds so good, but the fact is that Bob just doesn't really ever ask for much and Matt would feel like an asshole if he took this away from him. And after all Bob has done for Matt lately, he definitely deserves to have this massive geek out, but if he thinks Matt is really suffering, he'll start feeling bad and insist on leaving. Matt gives himself a shake to wake up and determines to start enjoying this a lot more and do his damnedest to convince Bob that he's fine and having a good time. If he can convince Bob, he'll probably convince himself too, so that'll be a bonus.

"Nah, it'll be okay. That nap did me good. And..." Matt smiles through the ache in his head. "I know how you love the dinosaurs."

 

The end.


End file.
